Congratulations to Brentford. They're looking like they might be this year's Sheff Utd. I actually think all three teams who went up were very good in different ways, and, ten years ago, I would have put money on all three staying up. But things have changed and the quality of the lower half of the Prem has gone up a lot IMO. Surviving is tough these days, as Fulham and Albion found out. EDIT: Sorry, not really the right thread. Just ignore me.
Really interesting line up. I think that will get the best out of Gilmour. Perhaps a little harsh on Omobamidele, but there’s no room for sentiment here. The main concern is we are on our fifth match and once again it’s wholesale changes in lineup. You look at the Brentford team - unchanged from their previous match. Shows that lost pre-season has really hurt us and we need to find some consistency so the team can really gel. Hopefully that’s to come, but I really fear it might be too early this match and it’s going to be rusty and the fan base will get really jittery.
I've mentioned on here before how Sheff Utd were able to field an almost unchanged side on being promoted, and now it seems Brentford are able to do the same. It really does help, I think, if you're a promoted side.
It could also be that we now have sufficient quality in depth to make tactical variations to suit the opposition, like Kabak coming in to deal with Sarr.
I hope that's the reasoning behind Hanley and McLean being in there! It's going to be interesting to see how that front three is going to be deployed. For Finland, Teemu plays in a front two alongside Pohjanpalo and I've often wondered whether DF might try something similar.
Maybe, although I would love to see a Tzolis/Pukki understanding like the Buendia/Pukki one. But maybe I am hankering after the past and we need to move on.
Is it just a poor camera picture or did it look like Sargent had his shooting leg taken out back then and not a peep from VAR?